


Shape of What Now?

by Numdenu (GlobalCooldown)



Category: Divinity: Original Sin (Video Games)
Genre: Beard-petting, Drabble, Fane is not a freaky fish guy, It's just silly feel-good pillow talk, M/M, Plot Spoilers, So I guess you can say things are getting pretty serious, The dialogue is silly, The kissing does get steamy, The title is silly, this is silly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-05
Updated: 2018-07-05
Packaged: 2019-06-05 18:58:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 646
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15177182
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GlobalCooldown/pseuds/Numdenu
Summary: As a man of the sea, Beast has heard his share of tales about merfolk. Fane is...not one of them.





	Shape of What Now?

**Author's Note:**

> A weird bit of banter arising from a chimeric combination of Beast and Fane's romances. I guess you could say this is during the, ah, "mind screw" part of the Fane romance scene.

Marcus Miles, the Beast of the Sea, had gotten into more than his fair share of weird adventures. This was one of the weirder ones.

The path up to the present moment had been such a mess of emotions and circumstances, he wasn’t entirely sure how it all led up to this. He remembered the Nameless Isle, the Lady Vengeance, the Hall of Echoes. He remembered nervously wringing his beard, then watching deft, bony fingers untangle the knots he’d made. He remembered suggestions, and subtle Source currents, and words that still made him shiver:  _ “Take me. Just a bit. Just enough.” _

And somehow that led him here, to some unreal space in his mind that looked suspiciously like the Academy. Just...warmer, somehow. More inviting. He’d probably feel right at home, if it weren’t for the man in front of him. Just looking at that man made him feel...quivery? Eager? Something. Something good.

In his defense, the man approaching him was a sight to behold. His skin was a calm-water blue, and his dark eyes were flecked with points of light, like stars on a clear night, the kind a ship’s navigator dreamed of. He was more than a mask. More than a skeleton. More than a shadowy figure. He was handsome in ways a simple beast didn’t have words for. It was all so much to take in--

“You sort of look like a merman,” Beast blurted.

Fane stopped in his tracks, his expression blanking out in confusion.

“A merman. It’s like a mermaid, but...a man.”

“I don’t know what that is,” Fane replied, giving him a sideways glance.

Beast tugged on his beard, trying not to give away how he was worrying about ruining the moment with his big dumb mouth. “You stay around sailors long enough, you’re bound to hear some mermaid stories. They’re beautiful women who live under the sea, luring men to their doom with their songs.”

“And who decided it was a good idea to throw a few mortal wenches into the sea?” Fane tried to sound skeptical, but those big, dark, starry eyes made him look too curious for his own good.

“I couldn’t tell you, lad,” Beast answered, cracking a smile. He paused to watch Fane kneel down in front of him before continuing. “Never seen one, myself. I don’t even know if they’re mortal. Or if they’re real.”

“Some sort of mythological construct, then?” Fane mused. “How do I look like these...mer-creatures?” He glanced up at Beast’s face as his fingers roamed over the dwarf’s beard, untangling knots and smoothing it out. It was soothing and distracting at the same time.

Beast tried not to look too deep into those big, starry eyes. What  _ was  _ it about Fane that made him think of a merman? “Well, you’re...blue, big-eyed, and handsome, and you look like you’d be right at home on a bed of kelp,” he tried. “And in some stories, the mermaid actually falls in love with the sailor.”

Fane looked up at him bemusedly, a dusky blush coloring his cheeks. He ran one hand down Beast’s beard, making the medallions woven into it jingle softly. Then he leaned in….

Their first kiss was gentle and exploratory. Beast pressed a hand to Fane’s chest, and was surprised to feel the other man had a pulse - one that was pounding just as hard as his own.

Their second kiss was rougher, more desperate. Fane dove into it with the kind of voracity only the touch-starved dead could muster, and it left Beast shivering.

A third - and Fane fell backwards with a grunt of surprise, as Beast and his beard washed over him like a spring tide. Everything started to blur into a mess of fingers, tongues, and roiling heat.

Emboldened, Beast broke the kiss, grinning breathlessly. “So. There’s something I always wanted to try….”

**Author's Note:**

> ...Cue the dwarven striptease.
> 
>  
> 
> I'm not sure why I wrote this. My last steamy oneshot was the product of some, ahem, altered states of consciousness (in my defense, it was right after I had a tooth pulled). This time, I don't have that excuse. I wrote this while stone cold sober. Maybe that's why it cuts off before anything explicit happens.
> 
> Regardless, I have a bit of blame to dish out. While in a multiplayer game of D:OS 2 with an internet friend, I shared what we know of what Fane looked like while he was alive. My friend then declared that Fane looked like a merfolk, and proceeded to kinkshame me. As much as I protested, they were RIGHT. The more I thought about it, the more I couldn't help but be reminded of some Magic: the Gathering style merfolk.
> 
> In that same multiplayer game, I, playing Fane, wound up romancing Beast. It was a genuinely charming romance scene, and I enjoyed myself right up to the point where I realized I was basically romancing a sailor with someone who looked like a merfolk.
> 
> The rest, as they say, is history.


End file.
